Journal of the Plague Year

continued, by a Gentleman

To the Bloater and Blueſtocking Coffee-houſe yeſter Eve for the fifty-ſeventh clandeſtine Meeting of the Liberal Society of Maſqueleſs Patriots, where the Proclamation by our noble Prime Miniſter, regarding the ſuperior Deadlineſs of the Woo Han Peſtilence following a Yeare of Expoſure to the Engliſhneſs of our Britiſhneſs, met with unanimous and voluble Approbation, with the exception of my Lord Swygge-Spycedwyne who was paſsed out and marinading his Jowles in a Chamber-pot. The ſayed Statement obſerves the past Yeare of precautionary Meaſures taken, the patriotick Defiance of mere Apothecaries Nurſes and Surgeons, the prophylactick Effectualneſs of Applauſe and of dining in Reſtaurants; and then noting the Exceſs of Mortality, the Corſes of imprudent Expendables piled up in the Streets, and the vindictive and ſlothful Dying of the ungrateful Poore, our noble Leader putteth forth the onlie conceivable Anſwer to the Conundrum: namely that the Heathen Peſtilence hath toughened its Self againſt our Britiſh Mettle and hath become a more buccaneering and entrepreurial Plague, than thoſe comparatively minor Afflictions which affect the leſser Breeds. Indeed it is a moſt elegant and ſcientifick piece of Reaſoning, from which manie uſefull Leſsons are indubitably to be learned, moſt eſpecially concerning our naturall Britiſh Diſpoſition to Conqueſt. For it may be left to the Imagination to imagine, what Effect ſuch an improved Peſtilence might wreak upon the effete prophylactick Forces of the beaſtlie French.